The October budget will be “painful”, Sir Keir Starmer has said, giving the biggest hint yet of tax rises.
Speaking from Downing Street, the prime minister said: “I will be honest with you, there is a budget coming in October and it’s going to be painful.”
He added: “Just as when I responded to the riots, I’ll have to turn to the country and make big asks of you as well to accept short term pain for long term good. The difficult trade-off for the genuine solution.”
Sir Keir said that “those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden” and “those who made the mess should have to do their bit to clean it up”.
The prime minister referenced the “£22bn black hole” in the nation’s finances, that he said the Office for Budget Responsibility did not know about – as he took aim at the last government.
“I said change would not happen overnight,” he said. “When there is a deep rot at the heart of a structure, you can’t just cover it up… you have to overhaul the entire thing, tackle it at root. Even if it’s hard work or takes more time.”
Speaking about riots towards the end of July into the start of this month following the Southport stabbing attack which left three young girls dead – the prime minister hit out at a “minority of thugs that thought they could get away with causing chaos”.
Politics latest: Reaction as Starmer gives major speech
During his speech, Sir Keir insisted, “we’ve done more in seven weeks than the last government did in seven years”.
The prime minister was speaking from the rose garden at Downing Street – previously used by Boris Johnson’s adviser Dominic Cummings after he broke COVID lockdown rules, and also where gatherings took place during partygate.
This appeared to be a deliberated choice, as Sir Keir said: “This is a government for you, a garden and a building that were once used for lockdown parties.
“Remember the pictures? Just over there? With the wine and the food. Well, this garden and this building are now back in your service.”
Sir Keir has repeatedly blamed the previous government and said it is influencing his decision-making.
This includes the means testing of the winter fuel payments for pensioners.
Ahead of the speech, Conservatives Party chairman Richard Fuller said it would be “nothing but a performative speech to distract the public from the promises Starmer made that he never had any intention of keeping”.
The government’s claims of a £22bn “black hole” left by the Tories have been questioned following substantial pay awards to unions – including to both junior doctors and train drivers.
Sir Keir said that he “didn’t want to means test the winter fuel payment”, but that it was a choice that needed to be made to “protect the most vulnerable pensioners”.
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Wednesday will be the first time in 14 years that Labour has set the agenda for government.
So, for Sir Keir Starmer’s new administration, this moment is rich in symbolism and in substance.
It is the chance for his government to exercise its power and show momentum.
Politics live: Wales’ first minister resigns
The King’s Speech will be the “foundation stone” for Sir Keir’s much-repeated mission to “rebuild Britain”. Number 10 will lay down over 35 bills to that end, with economic growth at the forefront of the programme for government.
Armed with a 170-seat majority and in the honeymoon period with the public, the new prime minister’s approval ratings have ticked up eight points since the election, according to YouGov, and he is now on the cusp of having a positive net favourability.
Watch coverage of the King’s Speech live on Sky News on Wednesday
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This period of time is perhaps as good as it’s going to get for Sir Keir. He is at the apex of his power and this King’s Speech will be closely watched as the blueprint for the scale of his ambition in the opening phases of premiership for a leader who says he wants to carry out a “decade of renewal”.
And his team are buoyed. Appearing at a Labour Together event on Monday evening, Chancellor Rachel Reeves spoke of how “one day in government” is already better than 14 years in opposition because it means her party can finally get things done.
One senior figure said Sir Keir and his team intended to run an “insurgent” administration, in which it has to prove to the public that the government can do a little bit more for them, to fix things, and then look to the future about what it might do next, rather than expect support on its record.
To that end, his team stresses that the meat of the agenda will be around delivering growth, as well it might given that the new Labour government is relying on that, rather than additional tax rises, to better fund creaking public services.
One government figure told me: “It’s going to feel really big, by any comparison to any incoming government. We’ve had a week to knock it about, but we’ve been working on it for a lot longer, and you wouldn’t be able to compare to another new government, it’s that meaty.
“It’s going to be a real moment in terms of focus and setting out the missions and delivery. There will be unfinished business in there and a sense of a government of service.”
The raft of bills will include bedding in fiscal rules and empowering the Office for Budget Responsibility to independently publish forecasts of big fiscal events.
Image: Prime Minister Keir Starmer with Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Pick: Number 10 Flickr
In her first speech as chancellor, Ms Reeves articulated the political story the government will seek to make over the next five years: “To fix the foundations of our economy so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of our country better off.”
There will be a series of “growth” focused bills – be it around housebuilding, devolution, improving transport and increasing jobs.
They also will push ahead with GB Energy, a new state-owned energy investor that will take stakes in renewables and nuclear projects as part of Labour’s promise to deliver all electricity from renewable sources by the end of the decade.
On the planning side, Labour will legislate so that public bodies can use compulsory purchase order powers to acquire land without the need for individual approvals by a secretary of state.
A new “take back control” bill will set a presumption towards devolution with new powers for mayors over transport, skills, energy and planning, which Labour says will help rejuvenate high streets and generate growth right across the country.
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Sky questions chancellor on growth
On housing, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s ban on no-fault evictions will also be tabled in a push to reform the private rented sector in England.
Ms Reeves has already announced plans to restore mandatory local housing targets in order to get more housebuilding, and Ms Rayner will begin the formal process of consulting on the National Planning Policy Framework before the end of July – with a view to start implementing the plans as early as autumn as Labour looks to get moving.
The government will also include plans to implement worker protection reforms, including a crackdown on zero-hours contracts and “fire and rehire” practices, and an AI bill, which will seem to enhance the legal safeguards around the most cutting-edge technologies.
There will also be a new law to put the water industry in “special measures”, which would see executives face bonus restrictions and potential criminal sanctions if they fail to clean up Britain’s rivers and beaches.
Image: Angela Rayner now leads on the government’s housing policy. Pic: Reuters
Much of the King Speech will reflect Sir Keir’s “first steps” for government he campaigned on during the general election.
But his message of change is also qualified with a plea for patience from a new Labour government, which is using its early weeks in office to talk up the state of the inheritance – as George Osborne did in 2010 – in order to buy time.
You only have to look at what Ms Reeves has said on the state of the public finances, caused in large part by the pandemic and energy price shock, or what the prime minister has said on the state of some public services, with prisons in a “shocking” and “far worse” state than he had anticipated, to see the pitch-rolling that improvements are going to take time – perhaps the full five years of the first term.
But with a big majority and a party hungry for change, there are already hints of some of the pressures to come for this infant government.
The SNP has announced plans to table an amendment in the King’s Speech calling on the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Kim Johnson of Labour is also tabling an amendment which former shadow chancellor John McDonnell will support.
A rebellion on this is building, with many in the party agreeing with former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown and Scotland’s Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who have publicly called on Sir Keir to scrap it.
The prime minister has refused to do so, saying this is a “difficult” decision driven by tight public finances.
Mr McDonnell has said he will look to amend the budget later this year if it doesn’t include steps to scrap the cap.
There is also internal disquiet in the party that the Labour Together and Labour First groupings are messaging the new 2024 MPs with a slate to take control of the parliamentary Labour Party and National Executive Committee positions.
One backbench source tells me that this “fixing” is adding to resentment amongst a group in the party after the government dropped 31 shadow ministers, while one figure tells me that MPs with large Sikh communities are beginning to bring up the problem of both Skikh shadow ministers being dropped.
A government source downplayed the tensions, pointing out that “groupings that are seen as more pro or sceptical of the leadership running in internal elections is as old as the hills”, and said the party leadership was not organising such slates.
But with a majority of 172, Sir Keir will not be too worried about internal soundings. His most pressing task is to show the public that his government really does mean change – and the King’s Speech will be the biggest symbol of that yet.
Are you ready for it? Because this week, Taylor Swift rolls into town for the first UK dates of her record-shattering Eras tour, to dominate front pages, social media, and a large proportion of the national conversation for the foreseeable.
Something has shifted in the Swiftverse in the past few years. She now transcends even the highest echelons of pop fame, massively boosting everything from music sales to, well, the entire global economy.
The Eras tour is a cultural and economic juggernaut; the first to cross the $1bn mark, according to Pollstar’s 2023 year-end charts, and already beating the record set by Sir Elton John and his Farewell Yellow Brick Road goodbye, which ran from 2018 to 2023 and grossed $939 million. Several experts predict it could generate more than $4bn by the time it finishes.
Swift is the first arts and entertainment star to be named Time’s Person of the Year. The first ever music billionaire to reach the milestone solely through her songwriting and recording. A slick pop star who understands the power of This. Sick. Beat, but also a songwriter and lyricist whose words are studied as poetry around the world. She has long been the biggest modern music star on the planet – but could she now be the biggest of all time?
To answer that question, you have to look to The Beatles. The band that changed the nature of the industry, long regarded as the most influential music act in music history.
In October last year, Swift re-released her fifth album, 1989, the record that really marked her crossover from incredibly successful country star to pop phenomenon. Featuring re-records of tracks that remain among her biggest hits to date, including Shake It Off, Blank Space and Bad Blood, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) inevitably followed all her others in skipping to the top of charts around the world.
Three weeks later came reissues of The Beatles’ classic Red and Blue album collections following the surprise release of Now And Then, the first original single in years, finally finished by Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr after more than four decades.
Now And Then topped the singles chart, naturally. But when it came to taking on Swift on the album chart, the star held her spot – denying the biggest and most influential band in history an extension to their record-breaking UK number one tally of 16.
The unstoppable force of Taylor Swift
Image: Pic: AP/ George Walker IV
Of course, The Beatles albums were reissues, but it’s worth noting Swift’s re-recordings are also not entirely new – she is re-recording much of her early work to reclaim her rights, with the addition of “from the vault” tracks – plus, fans had already been buying 1989 (Taylor’s Version) for three weeks by this point.
To Swifties, she is undoubtedly the biggest music artist of all time. To fans of the Fab Four, there will never be another act that comes close. Can their achievements be compared?
It’s tricky. Swift and The Beatles reached the height of their fame (and Swift might not even be there yet) in different – ahem – eras. There are multiple caveats – inflation, population growth, streaming and the affordability of music, live music becoming more lucrative, social media, do we include the individual Beatles’ solo output (we haven’t), and so on – that mean there is no exact science here.
But, we’ve given it a go…
Topping the charts
In the battle of the number ones, The Beatles get the points.
When it comes to singles, surprisingly, Swift hasn’t had as many as you might think topping the charts in the UK. Her first was Look What You Made Me Do in 2017 – Shake It Off, her biggest-selling hit, reached number one in the US, but number two here. Anti-Hero, from Midnights, became her second UK number one in 2022, with Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) and Fortnight, her recent collaboration with Post Malone, adding to the pile in the last year.
The Beatles, on the other hand, started scoring number ones early on. The first, From Me To You, was their third single, released in 1963, and was followed by hits including She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Can’t Buy Me Love, Help!, All You Need Is Love, Hey Jude… the list goes on.
Album chart-toppers are more evenly matched. The Beatles actually have more in the US than they have in the UK, as different versions and more records were released across the pond. All apart from one of their 12 studio albums topped the charts in the UK – Yellow Submarine peaked at number three in 1969 – and they have also reached the top spot with live and compilation albums.
Apart from her debut, Taylor Swift, released in 2006, all of Swift’s albums have reached number one in the US. In the UK it was her fourth album, Red, that became her first chart-topper, and all others since have followed.
Record sales
This one is a tricky one as not all sales are certified. According to Guinness (and we’ll come to world records later), The Beatles have amassed the greatest sales for any group, with all-time sales estimated by record label EMI at more than one billion discs and tapes to date. Note this is worldwide, and estimated.
So we’ve looked at certified sales of the music star’s studio albums – no compilations or live album sales – in the UK and US. In the UK, The Beatles take the win, with more platinum and gold sales than Swift. But in the US, she’s way ahead.
Interestingly, they both add up to just under 295 million certified sales in the UK and US.
In the UK, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) rates platinum sales for albums as those that reach 300,000 units, with gold sales at 100,000. In the US, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) rates diamond sales for albums at 10m units, while platinum is 1m and gold is 500,000.
The trophy cabinet
Swift wins this one – but there are a lot more awards up for grabs nowadays. She has 26 Teen Choice Awards, for example, and 40 American Music Awards, and neither were around in the 1960s.
The Grammy Awards were, though, and Swift is definitely the winner here – with 14 wins out of 52 nominations. Earlier this year, she became the first and only artist to win the Grammy for album of the year four times, for Midnights (2024), Folklore (2021), 1989 (2016), and Fearless (2010). She also has the most nominations for song of the year, with seven, but interestingly has never won in this category.
The Beatles have seven Grammy wins from 23 nominations, including best new artist and best performance by a vocal group, for A Hard Day’s Night, in 1964.
Despite her Grammys success, Swift is by no means the ceremony’s biggest winner – that accolade goes to Beyonce, who has 32 gongs from 88 nominations.
Deep space and earthquakes: Who’s the biggest record breaker?
In 2021, Swift’s re-recorded version of Fearless became the star’s third to top the UK charts in less than 12 months, breaking a long-held record by The Beatles.
In February, she surpassed their record for holding the most weeks in the Billboard 200’s Top 10 in the last 60 years. In April, she topped the UK album chart with The Tortured Poets Department, outselling the rest of the top 10 combined and beating The Beatles for the record of fastest artist to rack up 12 UK number ones.
And remember her billionaire status? Well, Sir Paul is also in the club – but having reached that point only earlier this year, a month after Swift, it’s taken him a lot longer to gain membership.
According to Guinness, Swift currently holds at least 77 records, while The Beatles hold at least 29. However, there is a chance there could be even more than this as records are constantly being set and broken – and it should be noted that with streaming, inflation and more awards shows now, it is easier to keep breaking records now than it was back in The Beatles’ day.
Some of Swift’s records include several for Spotify, such as being the most streamed act in 24 hours following the release of Midnights in 2022; most US singles chart entries (263); most million-selling weeks on the US albums chart; plus the greatest seismic activity caused by a music concert (equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake).
The Beatles’ records include the best-selling group ever worldwide; most consecutive weeks at number one on the UK albums chart – 30 weeks in 1963 for debut Please Please Me; most viewed Wikipedia page for a music group; and first song to be beamed into deep space with Across The Universe in 2008, courtesy of NASA.
Can’t Buy Me Love – but musicians can boost an economy
Now this one is pretty difficult to compare. So we won’t. But there are some impressive stats.
According to Barclays’ Swiftonomics report, released in May, the UK leg of the Eras tour is set to boost the UK economy by almost $1bn.
Eras Tour tickets sparked a 15.8% year-on-year increase in UK spending on entertainment when they were released last July, the bank says, and now the dates are here, nearly 1.2m fans attending 15 gigs taking place in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Liverpool and London are predicted to spend an average of £848 in total on tickets, travel, accommodation, outfits and other expenses.
The Beatles’ economic impact is harder to quantify. But there is information available on the band’s continuing boost to Liverpool alone – £81.9m to their home city’s economy each year, according to a report commissioned by Liverpool City Council in 2016.
This was set to grow by up to 15% each year, the report found at the time, with the band’s legacy also supporting more than 2,300 jobs.
Help! Is Swift bigger than The Beatles?
Image: Pic: AP
We asked some experts for their thoughts.
Dave Fawbert, founder of the Swiftogeddon club nights playing Swift, and nothing but Swift, says she is unmatched at the moment.
“She really does have it all,” he says. “She’s incredibly gifted melodically… you listen to Shake It Off, there’s literally about eight incredible hooks in that song.
“Most of the tracks, you hear the choruses once or twice, they’re so well written, you’ll be able to sing along by the third chorus. The other thing about her songs is they’re arranged so brilliantly, there’s never any wasted space in them.”
And then there’s her lyrics, he says, her ability to pick out universal emotions, specific details, and express them in song. “And she’s done it across virtually every genre. She’s a genius and she’s got the genius to work with good people as well.”
He says he would compare her dominance now to that of Michael Jackson in the 1980s and 1990s. But what about The Beatles? “I mean, they’re the best, I’m not sure they’ll ever be surpassed,” he admits. “But Taylor’s close.”
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UK tribute band The Bootleg Beatles say it’s too early to make a call.
“The music of The Beatles has already stood the test of time. The reaction we get as we continually tour around the UK – we’re back this month – and indeed the world, is testament to that,” they say. “So, while Taylor Swift is undoubtedly a wonderful talent, it’s probably around 50 years too early to judge her against the Fab Four.”
Hits Radio presenter Tom Green says they are two artists that “owned the zeitgeist” of their times. So is the comparison fair? “Yes and no.”
He elaborates: “I think it was probably a bit easier to be the whole zeitgeist in the ’60s, because there was only so many media outlets. Everyone was watching the same thing.”
Now, it’s a lot harder to create something that everyone is looking at, but Swift is constantly keeping our attention, he says. “I think the comparisons are really hard to do and music is so subjective. But I think the interesting thing about The Beatles is they brought in a genre of music, they ushered in the genre of rock and roll into pop music.”
Read more: The hidden meanings in Swift’s new album How a country girl took over the world
Dr Clio Doyle, a lecturer in early modern literature at Queen Mary University of London, teaches a module on Swift’s lyrics as literature. In her field, she says she would draw comparisons with artists such as Bob Dylan rather than The Beatles.
“It’s this kind of body of work that is really self-examining and self-revising and revisiting in a way that feels very dynamic and alive and intellectually interesting,” she says of Swift’s music. “I also think that one thing Swift has always done throughout her career is, she’s often talking about literature – from a very early song like Love Story, which is rewriting Romeo And Juliet, to a later song like The Lakes, which is thinking about romantic poetry.”
Dylan became the first musician to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016, she points out, a decision deemed controversial due to arguments over whether lyrics count as literature. “I think we have to say they do because they’re written texts,” says Dr Doyle. “I think those are very interesting conversations. And I think we see some of those conversations also now around Taylor Swift.”
And Amy Skjerseth, a lecturer in audiovisual media and a member of the Institute of Popular Music at the University of Liverpool, says that like Swift, The Beatles also had different eras, but Swift’s experience in the industry will have been different to theirs, as four male stars.
“For women-identifying pop stars, eras often are about survival in a music industry that does not make space for them, especially for artists of colour and queer artists,” she says. “There are also significant differences in class between Swift and The Beatles – Swift’s family had the means to support her career.
“And while Beatlemania was heavily stereotyped back in the day, Swift’s fans have an increased ability to push for social justice and social change, connect with each other, and create a larger sense of community.
“Beyond Taylor Swift, the Eras concept might help attract wider attention to artists who have worked tirelessly under the radar to transform their musical messages across changing times.”
So are we any closer to saying whether Swift is the biggest artist of all time?
Some of the stats suggest she might be. Beatles fans will disagree.
Will there be an answer? Maybe in 50 years, as The Bootleg Beatles say. For now, we’ll let it be.
Five gang members who falsely claimed more than £53m in benefits have been jailed for a total of 25 years.
In what is thought to be the largest benefit fraud and money laundering-related scheme in England and Wales, the gang made thousands of false universal credit claims using real people or hijacked identities.
Gyunesh Ali, 34, committed fraud by false representation “on an industrial scale” during the scheme which also involved fellow Bulgarians Galina Nikolova, 39, Stoyan Stoyanov, 28, Tsvetka Todorova, 53, and Patritsia Paneva, 27, Judge David Aaronberg KC said.
Image: Stoyan Stoyanov. Pic: CPS
Image: Tsvetka Todorova. Pic: CPS
At Wood Green Crown Court in London, they were sentenced to a total of 25 years and five months in prison after pleading guilty to multiple fraud and money laundering-related offences.
They were also all warned they are liable to be deported after serving their sentences and the judge acknowledged “an enormous amount of work” was carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to prosecute the gang.
Bundles of cash stuffed in shopping bags and suitcases were found during a raid on their properties, as well as a luxury car and designer watches, jackets and glasses, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
One gang member was also filmed throwing stacks of £20 notes in the air.
The gang supported their false benefits claims with an array of forged documents, including tenancy agreements, payslips and letters from landlords, employers, schools and GPs.
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1:32
Benefit fraudsters throw money in the air
If the claims were rejected by the DWP, the gang would try again until they were accepted.
Investigators discovered three “benefit factories” in London, where they claimed to help people obtain national insurance numbers using “claim packs” of forged and false documents, the CPS said.
Image: Patritsia Paneva. Pic: CPS
The court heard they also gave claimants tips on how to fool the system.
After applicants made the claims, they left them in the gang’s hands and they then laundered the money through several bank accounts.
Ali and Nikolova were the main people behind the fraud.
The judge said the maximum sentence he could give them under current laws is 10 years but added he would give them credit for their guilty pleas, time served and other mitigating factors.
More from Sky News: Footage shows aftermath of London shooting Another Conservative defects to Labour
Ali, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make false representations, possession of articles for use in fraud and possessing criminal property, was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison.
The judge told him: “You played a leading role in a scheme that was complex and sophisticated in nature. Your offending lasted for some four-and-a-half years and were involved in a vast number of false declarations.”
He had fled to Bulgaria after his arrest but was extradited back to the UK in February 2023.
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Nikolova, who was found to have caused £25m in losses for taxpayers, was given eight years in prison.
Todorova was given a three-year sentence but she was due to be released on licence on Thursday because of time already served in custody and under house arrest.
In court, it emerged Todorova and Nikolova had tried, unsuccessfully, to flee the UK after their arrests in May 2021.
Paneva was 19 years old and was paid £80 a day when she was recruited by the gang’s leaders for the scheme. She was jailed for three years and two months.
Stoyanov was sentenced to four years in prison after also pleading guilty to multiple charges.
An order for a surcharge is set to be made at a future confiscation hearing.
MPs are calling for a new review into the dangers of the drug Primodos, claiming that families who suffered avoidable harm from it have been “sidelined and stonewalled”.
MPs said the suggestion there is no proven link between the hormone pregnancy test and babies being born with malformations is “factually and morally wrong”.
A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on hormone pregnancy tests claims evidence was “covered up” and it is possible to “piece together a case that could reveal one of the biggest medical frauds of the 20th century”.
Around 1.5 million women in Britain were given hormone pregnancy tests between the 1950s and 1970s.
They were instructed to take the drug by their GPs as a way of finding out if they were pregnant.
But Primodos was withdrawn from the market in the UK in the late 1970s after regulators warned “an association was confirmed” between the drug and birth defects.
However, in 2017 an expert working group found there was insufficient evidence of a causal association.
But MPs now claim this report is flawed. It’s hugely significant because the study was relied upon by the government and manufacturers last year to strike out a claim for compensation by the alleged victims.
The APPG refers to research by Sky News which found aspects of the expert working group’s report were altered between the draft and completion.
It says: “Any risk of undue influence was confirmed by Freedom of Information (FOI) requests obtained by Sky News… that revealed a significant number of changes made to the draft version of the report.
“The APPG examined the FOIs and notes with alarm that there have been hundreds of alterations and some amount to changing the meaning of the report. This raises concerns that the final report seeks to mislead.”
A subsequent review by a team led by Baroness Cumberlege also questioned the changes made between the draft and final copy saying the revisions “created different impressions in the mind of the reader”.
Image: Nicky Gubbins has long campaigned for recognition that Primodos caused her malformations
When Sky News revealed these changes in July 2020 the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulation Agency (MHRA) told us: “It may not be obvious because of the redactions but the expert working group chair and the Commission on Human Medicines endorsed the changes to the report.”
MPs also note that a team of Oxford academics led by Professor Carl Heneghan obtained the raw data used by the expert working group and produced opposite results, finding “there was an association between Primodos and malformations”, and criticising the approach made by the expert working group.
The MPs also say new studies have added strength to claims of a link including a study in Sweden, revealed by Sky News in December.
They are now calling on ministers to commission an “independent review” review.
Read more: How Primodos campaigners are ‘running out of time’ Primodos campaigners lose legal bid for damages Theresa May calls for Primodos campaigners to be ‘treated fairly’
Image: Members of the APPG including its chair Yasmin Qureshi, middle, and vice chair Jacob Rees-Mogg, front left
The new report said MPs have “heard countless stories of sorrow and anger after a lifetime spent needlessly and irreparably damaged both physically and mentally”.
It added: “Mothers continue to be burdened by the guilt of having taken the tablets.
“Parents of the affected children, now in their 70s and 80s, are deeply anxious about what will happen to their adult children when they are no longer there for them.”
Yasmin Qureshi, chair of the APPG, said the report calls on the government to “finally do the right thing”.
“The report brings together the crucial parts of the historic research that has exposed the scandal that is at the heart of this campaign. This is the evidence that the government chooses to ignore.
“The report sets out the new scientific evidence which was recently published by a team led by Swedish scientist Professor Danielson.
“It asks, why does the government continue to rely so heavily on the expert working group report, when the findings, and how it came to achieve those findings, are so flawed?”
Image: More than 100 claimants lost a bid to sue Bayer for damages in 2023
Marie Lyon, chairwoman of the Association For Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests, said: “I await a positive response to our request for a completely independent review of all evidence.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We remain hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they or their children have suffered following the use of hormone pregnancy tests.
“It is right that the government is led by the scientific evidence and the government’s position remains that, after reviewing the available evidence, it does not support a causal association between the use of hormone pregnancy tests and adverse outcomes in pregnancy.
“We are not closing the door on those who believe they have been affected and have committed to reviewing any new scientific evidence which may come to light.”
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1:38:34
Watch the Sky News documentary Primodos: A Bitter Pill
The German manufacturer of Primodos, Schering, now owned by Bayer told Sky News: “Since the discontinuation of the legal action in 1982, Bayer maintains that no significant new scientific knowledge has been produced which would call into question the validity of the previous assessment of there being no link between the use of Primodos and the occurrence of such congenital anomalies.
“In 2017, the expert working group of the UK’s Commission on Human Medicines published a detailed report concluding that the available scientific data from a variety of scientific disciplines did not support the existence of a causal relationship between the use of sex hormones in pregnancy and an increased incidence of congenital anomalies in the new-born or of other adverse outcomes such as miscarriage.
“The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency supported that conclusion.”
The sacking of Azhar Ali as Labour’s candidate in the Rochdale by-election is the biggest disaster for Sir Keir Starmer in his nearly four years as leader of the party.
There will now be an almighty inquest into how a candidate who had made such comments about Israel and Gaza was selected for such a high-profile by-election.
Defending Rochdale was never going to be easy for Labour. Sir Tony Lloyd’s majority at the 2019 general election was 9,668, with the Conservatives in second place.
But the challenge from firebrand left-winger George Galloway and the constituency’s former Labour MP Simon Danczuk standing for Reform UK already presented difficulties.
But now Labour goes into the by-election on 29 February with no candidate, even though Mr Ali’s name will still be on the ballot paper, right at the top of the list in alphabetical order.
Follow latest: Labour withdraws support for Rochdale candidate
Why was he selected? Not surprisingly, as happens in many constituencies with a large ethnic minority population, the local Asian community will have wanted one of their own to represent them.
Mr Ali faced a strong challenge, however, from political journalist Paul Waugh, who was seen as the preferred choice of Sir Keir and the Labour leadership. It was something of a surprise when he wasn’t selected.
It has been reported that voting at the selection meeting was 87 votes for Mr Ali to 68 for Mr Waugh. Hardly a resounding victory for Mr Ali.
And Mr Waugh, as an experienced Westminster operator, would surely have been a safe pair of hands.
But the Labour activists who chose Mr Ali weren’t were not selecting a political novice. He’s the leader of the Labour group on Lancashire County Council and he’s been a parliamentary candidate twice, in his home town of Pendle.
He stood against Tory MP Andrew Stephenson in 2015 and 2019, coming second, 6,186 votes behind Mr Stephenson in 2019. He also acted as an adviser to the Blair and Brown governments between 2005 and 2010.
Image: Azhar Ali, when he still had the Labour Party’s support, speaks in Rochdale during the launch of his by-election campaign. Pic: PA
He has nearly 25 years’ experience in local government, but alarm bells should have rung in the Labour high command over his backing for Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.
That’s despite saying Mr Corbyn would be a disaster for the country in 2015, when Mr Corbyn first stood for leadership after the resignation of Ed Miliband.
So if the first Labour blunder was selecting Mr Ali in the first place, the second was standing by him for 48 hours after his comments about the 7 October attacks in Israel were first reported in the Mail on Sunday.
A third blunder was failing to discover that it wasn’t just the Mail on Sunday disclosure that was embarrassing. Labour now admits “new information” and “further comments” have come to light.
Senior Tories claim the disclosure of his controversial remarks prove that Sir Keir’s claims – made repeatedly in Prime Minister’s Questions and elsewhere in recent weeks – were a hollow sham.
On the Labour left, meanwhile, they claim it was grossly unfair that Sir Keir and the leadership backed Mr Ali when left-wingers Kate Osamor, Andy McDonald and Mr Corbyn himself had been suspended over antisemitism allegations.
Read more politics news: Labour candidate ‘fell for online conspiracy theory’ Formal complaint filed against Labour candidate Hancock defends use of taxpayer-funded Jaguar
But there may be worse to come for Labour. Suddenly, the Rochdale disaster – 17 days before polling day in that by-election – plunges the two by-elections this week, in Wellingborough and Kingswood, into potential disarray.
Until this weekend, bookies and pollsters had been predicting victory for Labour in both seats, even though Labour is fighting to overturn big Conservative majorities.
Now, any senior Labour figures campaigning in the final days ahead of polling day this Thursday – and indeed the candidates themselves – will be besieged by questions about Mr Ali and the Rochdale fiasco.
Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, deputy party leader Angela Rayner and leading shadow cabinet member Lisa Nandy have all made high-profile visits to Rochdale to support Mr Ali in the past week.
The Tories, of course, will be cock-a-hoop. A week in which an embattled Rishi Sunak was facing a rise in inflation, two potential by-election wipe-outs and renewed plotting against him by Tory MPs has now turned into Christmas, Easter and his birthday all at once.
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2:13
McFadden on support being withdrawn for Ali
The veteran Labour MP John McDonnell told Sky News he couldn’t recall the sacking of a by-election candidate during a campaign before. And, in covering by-elections for 40 years, nor can I.
This is far worse for Sir Keir and Labour than the “Red wall” Hartlepool by-election defeat in 2021 and the ULEZ backlash that handed victory to the Tories in Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency in July.
Labour’s lead in the opinion polls has remained stubbornly around the 20% mark for months. That could now change.
Will we see the beginning of the end of Labour’s seemingly unassailable poll lead?
Is this a turning point for the Tories? Possibly. They won’t win Rochdale, but they won’t care about that. Humiliation for Sir Keir Starmer is a massive gift for the Conservatives.
And despite all the talk from the likes of campaign chief Pat McFadden that Sir Keir has taken a tough decision, it doesn’t look like that.
It’s more than an embarrassing retreat and U-turn by the Labour leader. It’s also an unmitigated disaster for Labour and Sir Keir’s worst crisis in his time as leader.
“When the time comes, disconnect the main flex cable.”
Besides being a short guy named Tom, I never felt I had any sort of Mission: Impossible credentials until I donned safety googles and got handed a screwdriver and plastic scalpel at what’s thought to be the UK’s biggest phone recycling factory.
Fixing the screen on a Samsung handset isn’t quite cutting wires on a nuclear bomb, admittedly, but for someone whose DIY experience doesn’t go far beyond putting toppled Lego back together, it was quite the thrill.
Image: A strong look, I’m sure you’ll agree
Having already used a screwdriver no fewer than 18 times to get into the device’s complex interior components, the next step was removing that aforementioned flex cable.
These are what connect up some of the phone’s most important features, like the touchscreen, to the motherboard – and this phone needed a new one.
It was a relatively basic task, though not one I was trusted with enough to perform on a real customer’s device.
In the time it took me to remove those screws, the technician sat in front of me had likely fixed a few of the more than 900 devices processed at the Ingram Micro Lifecycle hub in Norwich each day.
The 34-year-old facility, with a floor big enough to hold 20 tennis courts, has around 800 employees.
Many are highly-trained technicians, deployed at stations with dedicated equipment for everything from realigning a phone’s broken camera system to replacing those all-important flex cables.
Image: A technician at work disassembling a phone. Pic: Ingram/Virgin Media O2
Facility ‘purpose built’ to recycle phones
Kevin Coleman, the facility’s fourth employee back in 1989 and now one of its most senior leaders, says there are “hundreds of technical functions” going on at all times.
“The facility is purpose built to industrialise high-volume processing of tech devices,” he says.
“Predominantly mobile, but also wearables, tablets, earbuds, and laptops.”
I even spotted a Nintendo Switch games console at one station – and it wasn’t for staff to sneak in a cheeky race on Mario Kart between jobs.
Of course, phones are the focus – and the range of those alone is quite extraordinary.
There are shelves and trolleys stacked with iPhones, Samsung Galaxies and Google Pixels of all colours and sizes; damaged or broken in their own way; with every technician trained to handle whichever one might come to them.
Image: Phones being repaired for various screen repairs
Old phones ‘should never go to landfill’
They end up with Ingram’s workers via Virgin Media O2‘s recycle scheme, which lets people, regardless of network, submit their phone for repair or recycling.
Last year, it paid out £36m to people who sold their phones – and plenty are choosing to buy second-hand.
Gina Mutonono, who works on the network’s sustainability initiatives, said the cost of living crisis was one of the reasons there was a “growing acceptance from customers for refurbished devices”.
It helps that many of the phones that go through the facility come out looking good as new – and if they’re too old or just not sellable, there are likely still useful parts within.
“Consumers who are sending us smashed phones don’t always realise even if we cannot sell them, that they’re still worth something,” says Mutonono.
“We can always reuse some parts, like metals or batteries – they should never go to landfill.”
Image: The factory employs 800 people. Pic: Ingram/Virgin Media O2
The huge number of phones going to waste
Five billion phones are estimated to have been thrown away worldwide last year, but less than 20% of e-waste is recycled and ends up part of Mutonono’s cherished “circular economy”.
There are also thought to be tens of millions of unused electronics sitting in Britons’ drawers and cupboards.
A study last year revealed the estimated worth of spare smartphones alone was £1bn.
To make the most of everything that ends up at the Norwich facility, new recruits go through its classroom-like training centre. Given the nature of the tech world, veterans need to return regularly as new handsets are released.
They’re taught how to disassemble phones and put them back together, just as I got to try – albeit with the help of a Jedi-like engineering sage at my side and a detailed set of instructions.
Image: All manner of phones make their way through the facility. Pic: Ingram/Virgin Media O2
Hot wires and phone freezers
Resembling some kind of futuristic city for Borrowers, these phones might be small, but the interiors are packed with quite incredible amounts of component parts.
The screen alone is made up of a display module inside the device, the LCD or OLED panel, and a sheet of glass you likely tap and swipe hundreds or thousands of times a day. The degree of damage, whether it’s minor scratches or a complete smash, determines just how multistaged a screen repair job might be.
I watched on completely transfixed as a woman removed the pane of glass from a display using a hot wire, which looked like the way a pretentious Michelin-starred chef might slice cheese.
Another lady was looking after a broken curved screen, which first needs to be frozen in a super low temperature freezing oven to separate the glass from the display.
It speaks to how adaptable and intricate these technicians have to be. Just don’t ask them about foldable phones, they’re still working out just how to fix those notoriously fragile contraptions.
Image: This technician is removing a sheet of glass from a screen using a hot wire
The fact that hundreds are processed at this factory alone each day, adding up to four million a year, reflects the great speed at which these technicians work.
Not that they skimp on care and attention, hammered home by the fact even visitors like myself had to dress up in specialist protective gear that prevents me from passing any electrostatic discharge on to the devices – potentially ruining the repair process.
Read more: 50 moments in 50 years since first mobile phone call
Image: One of the few bits of kit I needed to wear to stop transmitting an electrostatic discharge
They’re also helped by one of my favourite parts of the entire facility.
A web of pipes under the ceiling funnels replacement parts, packed inside cylindrical containers, to each work station as needed, like a hyperefficient Santa’s workshop.
I could have listened to the satisfying “woosh” as they take off for hours.
Image: Phone parts are funnelled across the factory floor using this network of pipes
The ultimate factory reset
And the work doesn’t stop there, with data wiping also a key part of the job. After all, you definitely don’t want those WhatsApps and photos being seen by anyone else.
Coleman explains: “The technicians do the repair, but also the documentation.
“We’re approved by the major manufacturers, like Apple and Samsung, which gives us access to parts we need, but also the software tools to make 100% sure there’s no data on the device.”
A factory reset in the truest sense.
Image: A range of equipment is utilised. Pic: Ingram/Virgin Media O2
As was clear during my visit, this facility is always busy. But just as Santa’s workshop would perk up in December, it can expect plenty of old phones to play with come September when Apple unveils this year’s iPhone line-up.
Coleman confidently predicts his team will be handling traded-in iPhone 15s within weeks of release, such are some people’s obsession with always having the next best thing.
The idea of an annual upgrade is likely becoming increasingly alien to most of us, given how iterative and uninspiring new releases have long felt. Tim Cook is no doubt looking forward to telling us about “the fastest iPhone Apple has ever made”, but one imagines your old one will still cycle through funny TikTok videos just fine.
In fairness, manufacturers like Apple and Samsung clearly recognise how much longer we’re tending to keep hold of our phones, given both now let UK customers order their own self-repair kits if they feel confident enough to try.
Still, if you do fancy a new phone next month, it’s not for anyone to tell you it would be a waste of money.
Just remember you probably don’t have to let the old one go to waste.
Mental health issues account for almost a quarter of all NHS staff absences in England, with a stark rise in staff taking sick days for anxiety, stress, and burnout since the onset of COVID-19.
The absence rate during 2022 shows the NHS lost some 27 million sick days to absence. This is the equivalent of nearly 75,000 full-time staff and includes some 20,400 nurses and 2,900 doctors.
The figure, analysed by the Nuffield Trust from NHS data for the BBC, is a rise of 29% on 2019 – the last full year before COVID hit.
Mental health issues were the top single issue, with colds, coughs, respiratory problems, and the return of flu, accounting for further big rises.
In total across 2022, some six million working days were lost in total to mental health and wellbeing reasons.
The research also found the level of sickness absence is not equal around the country. By the end of 2022, the reported sickness rate in the North West stood at 7.4%, above the national average for hospital and community services, while London was 5.4%.
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True absence levels likely to be higher
The trust’s senior fellow Dr Billy Palmer said: “The health service is grappling with a difficult new normal when it comes to staff sickness leave.”
He said while there has been a lot of focus on recruitment, more needed to be done to improve the working conditions of existing staff.
Read more: Why are so many staff leaving the health service? NHS consultants vote to strike for two days next month ‘The worst hospital I have ever seen’
“The workforce plan needs to have concrete support to enable employers to improve NHS staff experience if the service is to break this cycle of staff absences, sickness and leaving rates,” he said.
As not every absence would have been recorded, the trust said the figures were likely to be lower than the true numbers.
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The analysis comes days after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed his NHS Long Term Workforce Plan which he called the “largest expansion in training and workforce”.
The government is set to publish the long-awaited NHS workforce plan later this week to address the long-term woes in the health service.
House prices fell by 3.1% year-on-year in March, marking the biggest annual decline since July 2009, Nationwide Building Society said.
The figures also showed a monthly price fall of 0.8% – the seventh consecutive fall – which leaves prices 4.6% below their August peak.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “The housing market reached a turning point last year as a result of the financial market turbulence which followed the mini-budget.
“Since then, activity has remained subdued – the number of mortgages approved for house purchase remained weak at 43,500 cases in February, almost 40% below the level prevailing a year ago.
“It will be hard for the market to regain much momentum in the near term since consumer confidence remains weak and household budgets remain under pressure from high inflation.
“Housing affordability also remains stretched, where mortgage rates remain well above the lows prevailing at this point last year.”
Emergency care will be prioritised by the NHS next week when strike action by junior doctors will see the biggest disruption of services to date, with thousands of routine appointments postponed.
The industrial action is set to begin on Monday at all trusts in England for 72 hours.
It is the longest continuous period of walkouts to hit the health service in recent months, following strikes by nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists.
However, with around 61,000 junior doctors making up half of the medical workforce and no national derogations having been agreed, the NHS is warning the latest action is expected to see some of the most severe disruption to date, impacting on efforts to cut the record-high waiting list.
If you are an NHS worker and would like to share your experiences with us anonymously, please email NHSstories@sky.uk
As a result, emergency, critical and maternity care will be prioritised, as well as patients who have waited the longest for elective care and cancer surgery where possible.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the medical director of the NHS, said: “The NHS has been working incredibly hard to mitigate the impact of this strike.
“While we are doing what we can to avoid having to reschedule appointments, there’s no doubt that disruption will be much more severe than before and patients who have been waiting for some time will face postponements across many treatment areas.
“Where there are postponements, we’ll be trying to re-book as quickly as possible. However, it is vital to attend planned appointments unless told otherwise.
“We have no option but to prioritise emergency and critical care as a matter of patient safety, and we’re asking the public to help us and use 111 online as well as local services like general practice and pharmacies as first points of call, but people should of course always use 999 in a life-threatening emergency.”
The NHS stressed that the measures were needed to make sure safe care continues to be available for those in life-threatening situations.
It said routine appointments and procedures will only be cancelled where unavoidable and patients will be offered an alternative date as soon as possible.
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The warning comes after senior leaders reportedly told the Health Service Journal that ministers have not sufficiently sounded the alarm about the risk to patient harm posed by the strikes.
More than 98% of junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA) voted to take industrial action in the dispute over pay and conditions.
Talks between the BMA and Health Secretary Steve Barclay at the start of March did not improve matters, with the union saying the cabinet minister “refused to come forth with any improved offer”.
The BMA says that while workload and waiting lists are at record highs, pay for junior doctors has been cut “by more than a quarter since 2008”.
But the government says pay has increased by a cumulative 8.2% since 2019/20 and further wage increases aren’t affordable at a time of record-high inflation.
Health leaders ‘preparing for absolute worst’
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3:06
NHS Crisis: ‘Past breaking point’
The NHS Confederation, which represents trusts across the country, urged both sides to “show willingness to compromise and bring these strikes to an end without delay”.
It said health leaders are “preparing for the absolute worst” with some taking down 50% of their planned theatre activity and others are opting for 100%.
Elsewhere one large hospital is having to rearrange more than 2,000 outpatient appointments and over 200 non-urgent surgeries next week.
Read more: Around 23,000 excess deaths in 2022 were ‘linked to A&E waits’ NHS England set to miss two key targets of COVID recovery plan
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “We are disappointed the government and BMA have failed to put a stop to the forthcoming junior doctors strikes, especially after the positive steps that have been made with the other trade unions.”
He added: “… no national exceptions have been agreed to these walkouts, and many trusts will find themselves in a difficult position trying to navigate payment of the BMA’s recommended rate card for consultants when covering the work of junior doctors.
“This means it is likely that disruption to patient services will be like nothing the NHS has seen since industrial action started last December. Thousands of procedures and appointments are likely to be cancelled.”
